Now and Forever

Chapter 17

Meliodas was sitting up in bed, staring at the wall in shock when the other Sins came bursting through the door.

"We heard you yell" cried King, "is everything ok?"

When the Captain didn't respond, Diane slowly approached the bed and waved a hand in front of his face. "C-captain?"

"Oh for fuck sakes" growled Ban as he stalked over to the Dragon Sin and slapped the Captain hard enough to knock him out of bed. Crouching down in front of him, he got inches away from the Captain's face. "What the hell has gotten in to you? Pull yourself together; the Princess needs you!"

At that, Meliodas slowly brought his glazed eyes up to meet Ban's. "He has her" he said softly, his eyes wide. "Oh god…the screaming" he whispered as he suddenly lurched forward and retched.

Diane and King looked at each other in fear and confusion; they had never seen him like this.

"Ok, you guys go downstairs. He'll be alright, he's just obviously had too much ale. I can take it from here!" Ban laughed over his shoulder.

Diane and King looked at each other and chuckled nervously "he's going to have one hell of a hangover" King smiled weakly as they slowly made their way down the stairs.

After he was sure they were gone, Ban shut the door and came back to his captain. "Ok, we all know that you haven't had nearly enough to get tipsy let alone drunk. Who has her?"

"My Father"

"What's this about screaming?"

"They made me watch…the blood…the screaming!"

At that, Ban slapped him again, more gently this time. "Ok, you're not making sense. You need to be the Captain of the Seven Deadly Sins now. Get up and let's go save Elizabeth before something happens to her!" he said, grabbing a glass of water from the nightstand and splashing it in his face.

Meliodas suddenly shook his head as though coming out of a trance and looked sharply up at Ban with clear emerald eyes, "Did you slap me?"

"Twice" he replied with a toothy grin.

"Huh. Did I say anything?"

"You said 'He has her' and then kept going on about blood and screaming. What the hell happened?"

Meliodas' face blanched. "We have to find Elizabeth, NOW!" he cried as he leapt for the door. Ban moved in front of him, blocking his way. "First you have to tell me what's going on. What the hell are we walking into?"

"They're doing an experiment to see what happens when you inject an Apostle with demon blood." He went on describe the 'dream' and by the end, Ban's face was noticeably paler and frozen with a look of horror. "Holy shit" he whispered.

"Yup…I'm going to kill somebody" Meliodas said as his eyes went black, the demon mark appeared over his eye, and black mist began to curl off of his body. "Now, let's move."

…

She was exhausted. Elizabeth had spent the night healing herself again and again. She knew that she could only do it a few more times before she was completely spent, at which time the Princess instinctively knew she would die. At least he had removed most of the ropes, so instead of being tied to the chaise, her ankle was tied with a long lead, attaching her to one of the columns holding up the remaining portion of the roof, with her hands bound behind her back. Not that it mattered, as she didn't even have the energy to try and run away from him.

She had a momentary breather as her captor, the man the General had referred to as Jirou, was out of the room. Meliodas will find me as soon as he's able she thought frantically I just need to make sure I survive that long!